1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for releasably attaching items to a web, and deals more particularly with a device for attaching items arranged along a strip having formed interdigitated tabs to which the strips with the items is readily hung for sale to consumers in a store or point of sale location.
2. Background Art
The use of hang strips for point of sale merchandising is well known. Merchandisers have recognized the value of hang strip systems and manufacturers have responded by developing the use, loading and hanging of hang strips for point-of-purchase merchandising. Many versatile and useful configurations have been developed providing for ease of mounting the hang strips onto a merchandising mount located at the point of sale. The hang strips provide an attachment mechanisms for attaching items to be displayed on the hang strips. The hang strips include attachment fingers which hold the items, the items being releasable, held on the hang strip. When desired, the items can be detached by the purchaser at the time of purchase.
For examples of hang strip disclosures, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,656,917; 5,553,721; 5,103,970 and others, such as those available from assignee hereof, AGT, Inc., of Melrose Park, Ill. All of these patents relate to the configuration and interrelationship of elements on a hang strip, and essentially relate to hang strips cut to specified lengths, having of from about three to about twelve hang tabs to which the releasably attachable items are attached.
Hang strip materials can be commercially obtained in the form of a continuous roll, having evenly spaced apart cut portions for attaching or loading items for display. In these arrangements, the hang strip material is fed through a device for loading attachable items onto each of the tabs, and when a desired number of items are attached to a section of the continuous strip, the loaded strip section is then detached either by cutting or tearing along a transversely perforated boundary between adjacent sections.
Use of hang strips has become common so that associated devices used for loading the hang strip in an efficient and speedy procedure have become available. For example, a device available from Slip & Snip, Inc. of Sweet Home, Oreg. provides a sprocket wheel for advancing the hang strip, and provides for guides which hold the lateral edges of the hang strip adjacent the surface of a flat base. The sprockets of the sprocket wheel extend above the surface of the base so that each interdigitated tab of the cut portions is opened by a sprocket which protrudes through the cut portion. The sprocket engages the cut portion and, by rotation of the wheel, the sprocket advances the hang strip through the loading station, somewhat like a film in a photographic or movie camera.
At a maximum of the protrusion of the sprocket through the cut portion, the interdigitated tabs are opened and extend essentially transversely to the web surface of the hang strip. At that instant, the operator can load an attachable item onto the interdigitated tabs, and as the strip is further advanced so that the sprocket protrusion recedes below the surface of the base, the interdigitated tabs close over the attachment portion of the item to releasably retain it on the hang strip. The attachment is releasable, yet strong enough to hold the item in place when the loaded strip is shipped and hung for display at the point of sale location. A prospective purchaser of the item may easily remove the item from the hang strip for purchase, in accordance with known hang strip systems.
One difficulty that arises from use of the aforementioned loading device is that the sprocket mechanism is fully protruding through the tab at the time that the item is attached onto the open interdigitated fingers. This causes the sprocket to interfere to some extent with the item loading operation. Also, and especially if the item is bulky, attaching an item which extends over the previously loaded item on an adjacent cut portion causes the items to stack up. Bulky items cause space above the strip to be filled quickly, and will further interfere with loading. This results from the two dimensional surface of the base on which the items are attached to the hang strip. The items must be placed one atop the other during the attachment process, which leads to lack of space and other considerations.
Another loading mechanism which is also available is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,118. The device described therein utilizes an elaborate system where indexing of hang strip movement of the tabs in discrete incremental sections to an item attachment station is controlled by an operator-activated actuator. The hang strip material is automatically advanced upon operator activation and the loading mechanism pauses to stop an unloaded cut portion of the strip adjacent an article attaching station. As described, a pin at the item attaching station is inserted into each hang strip cut portion from beneath the surface of the base to open at least some of the interdigitated tab fingers of each cut portion, thereby permitting loading of an item.
To overcome the stacking of bulky items on the surface of the base encountered in the aforementioned device, the item attachment station is disposed adjacent a base edge. As the interdigitated tab fingers are paused at the base edge, the pin is inserted to protrude through the cut portion to move certain ones of a set of tabs away from the web of the hang strip material. As the hang strip material is half folded over the base edge, it causes the opposite set of interdigitated fingers to also move away from the web of hang strip material for easier attachment of the items to the tab fingers.
This device, however, suffers from an unnecessary complexity and from an excessive number of moving parts occasioned by the elements described therein, such as the air pressure operator control mechanism, the indexing mechanism and the indexing procedure which counts the number of times the indexing has occurred so that a bang strip section may be cut by a cutting means, such as a knife. Excessive moving parts are known to be subject to failure, resulting in down time while the device is replaced.
What is considered necessary is an easy to operate, failure resistant, inexpensive device which has a minimum of moving parts and which does not include subsystems which require activation by or coaction of the operator to operate the apparatus.